


for what it’s worth

by novaartinoisaqueen



Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: F/F, Grief/Mourning, Hurt/Comfort, Old Age, Old Married Couple, just send me ur therapy bills, kinda?? Like ur gonna be sad but it isnt an unhappy kinda sadness if that makes sense fhrejkaf, sorry in advance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-08
Updated: 2021-02-08
Packaged: 2021-03-14 15:08:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,513
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29297904
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/novaartinoisaqueen/pseuds/novaartinoisaqueen
Summary: “Life was strange.In her eighty whatever years of life, that was the conclusion Catra came to.It was weird and unpredictable and full of surprises at every corner, but she supposed that was what made it so interesting.”-after going to bed one night, catra reflects on the life she has had, and comes to a conclusion while dreaming.
Relationships: Adora/Catra (She-Ra)
Comments: 15
Kudos: 54





	for what it’s worth

**Author's Note:**

> i wrote this about two months ago, i think, but it was on my mind for a little bit before that. i came across it while going through my wips earlier, and decided to post it.

Life was strange. 

In her eighty whatever years of life, that was the conclusion Catra came to. 

It was weird and unpredictable and full of surprises at every corner, but she supposed that was what made it so interesting. 

She had lived a fulfilling life, one that was full of every twist and turn possible in the universe, which she had traveled all over, mind you. When she was young, thoughts of being old didn’t frequent her brain often. Being raised a soldier, war was all she had known. The idea of growing up, of leading a life that wasn’t one as a soldier, was foreign and in ways, uncomfortable to think about. For those who cared enough, it had been a hopeless dream, something that would never amount to anything because of the war that never seemed to end. 

The only thing that got Catra through it all was her best friend. Throughout their childhood and teen years, they were practically glued together at the hip. Friendships, relationships, connections, those were things that were not taught in the Horde. In fact, they were discouraged, seen as nothing more than distractions. People still formed them anyway, if only to keep from going insane. 

When Adora left her all those years ago, Catra remembered being heartbroken and bitter. Her only source of light, of purpose, in the world, gone in just a matter of days. And oh, Catra had been angry. As the war raged on, she became what she always set out to become with Adora, but it wasn’t until she had made it to the top that she realized how pointless her efforts were if she didn’t have anyone she cared about by her side. She had nearly lost herself during it all. 

And then something miraculous happened: the war ended.

And then something even more miraculous happened: Adora came back into her life. Or, realistically speaking, they found one another again. 

And Catra was happy. For a very long time, she experienced what some would call life’s true purpose, which she now understood was different for every single living being in the universe. For her, it meant waking up every day wanting to be better than she was the day before. It meant finding ways to laugh and smile. It meant embracing pain and sadness and coping with them properly. It meant not taking her good fortunes for granted, not even for a second, because she never knew when they would be taken from her. 

She found happiness and purpose in first Adora, who then inspired her to find it within herself. It took years to heal from their pasts, but they healed together. And when they believed they were in a healthy place, finally, they decided to get married. 

It had been a beautiful wedding. Before then, Catra had only been to a handful of weddings, all her and Adora’s friends, so it wasn’t like she knew much about a good wedding, but theirs had been perfect in her eyes. Simple and small, with just a handful of guests that mainly included their close ones, which had reflected their characters well. Even after Adora’s recent passing, Catra still wore the old winged pin over every piece of her clothing proudly, as Adora once had when the object belonged to her during the war. 

Marriage, as Catra learned, wasn’t all too different than how things had been before, but she had always found joy in calling Adora her wife in front of others whenever possible, though she never would have admitted it out loud. She had a reputation, after all; people couldn’t ever suspect she was going soft. 

They had their ups and downs, as any couple did. As children, they argued all the time, and being married was no different. They weren’t perfect, not by a long shot. But every argument, every shared joke, every moment, mattered and held an important place in Catra’s heart. Arguing meant they cared about one another, solving their disagreements meant they loved one another enough to keep what they had alive and nurtured. 

Her marriage, the family she made for herself, through Adora and her friends and then, in later years, the two children they adopted, became her life. They were her purpose. For them, she would’ve walked around the planet dozens or thousands of times if they simply asked. Catra had once thought she was alone in the world, and would die alone, but how wrong she was. 

If there was a diagram of her life, like all the ones Adora used to make for fun and Catra would tease her for, there would be an abundance of relationships and connections and so, so many people that would make her younger self combust, no doubt. And every day, she could never get over how lucky she was to be given this second chance, after believing for so long that she was too far gone to be saved. 

When her Adora passed away a little over a year ago, a part of Catra died with her. They had already known for a while that her wife’s time was limited. When they were younger, doctors worried about the effects She Ra had on her, especially considering the amount of times Adora used the magical being to heal others or herself, and they were right. When Adora began showing signs of slowing down, of not quite remembering everything properly, they knew, though they rarely spoke about it. Instead, they did what they had always done, and made the most of it. 

In true Adora fashion, she went on her own terms, living longer than what the doctors initially thought. Much longer, in fact. When they gave her months, she pushed it to years, but even Etheria’s savior couldn’t escape death. 

For months, Catra mourned. Glimmer helped her through it, as they had lost Bow a few years prior, and Catra was forever grateful for her once enemy turned best friend. 

Somehow, it wasn’t the actual dying part of it all that had Catra mourning longer than most. She used to think that mourning a death was mourning the actual event itself. A stupid thought, really, but it wasn’t until she lost Adora that she realized that you mourn because you miss them. The lines on the corners of their smile, their contagious laughter, the way they breathed at night after falling asleep, the way they greeted you after being gone all day as though you were worth a thousand lifetimes. Mourning is adjusting to a life without all of those wonderful things. 

Being old ladies, widows at that, she and Glimmer stuck together. A lot of their friends from their early years were either gone or too old to travel, and their families were grown with their own lives, traveling the universe or ruling a kingdom, so they were essentially all each other had. And it was good, for a while. A good distraction. They were an odd pair, that was for sure, and they certainly got away with more than they probably should’ve. They saved the world once, so who was going to tell them what they could or couldn’t do?

Eventually, though, Catra grew tired. Waking up on Adora’s side of the bed, where she had begun sleeping the day following her passing until the present, wearing her pin, seeing the portrait of their younger selves in Bright Moon, walking past the statue of She Ra in the gardens...everything was a reminder of her. 

It wasn’t until Catra met the new She Ra, a scraggly sixteen year old who said they felt the being’s powers within them not long after Adora’s passing, that she realized her life was fulfilled. Somehow, when she met that child, who had come to Bright Moon upon the queen’s, Glimmer’s daughter’s, request, Catra saw Adora in them. Not in any of their physical features, but in the way they held themselves with such confidence, and a wisdom that didn’t match their true age. 

Catra hadn’t wanted to meet the child, only doing so upon Glimmer’s nagging, but she was glad she did. They helped fill her with a sense of peace that told her she was ready for what came next. She was ready to move on. She had accomplished what she set out to do in her life, and there was nothing left for her. 

When she closed her eyes that night, she knew somehow. In her dreams, she relived her life, the good and the bad, the laughter and the tears, and smiled. 

And when she awoke, she felt a lightness in her toes that she hadn’t felt in years, an opening of her lungs that made her feel young once more. Before her stood the most beautiful woman she had ever seen, hand outstretched with that same secretive smirk Catra had kissed over a thousand times in her life, face young again like how Catra felt. It only felt natural to take her hand, to marvel at the realness of it in hers.

“Hey, Adora.” 

**Author's Note:**

> so like, i dont think this is that sad, right? Like there’s a happy ending, ish?
> 
> eh, just send me the therapy bills if it was that bad
> 
> comments and support on here/my tumblr (@adorascake) help motivate me, just fyi, and I’m going through a rough patch with my writing at the moment;)
> 
> if you enjoyed this, i have other works, and more to come. im also pretty active on my tumblr, so go check me out there, send me asks, send me anon hate, whatever you want<3 thanks for reading!


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